Dinosaur Safari - Day 1 - Week 2 (Mark Day School)

9:10 AM - Opening Circle. We introduce ourselves, learn our goals for the week, and generate a list of group agreements. This is all part of building community. The backbone for this is our Mark Day School SEL (social and emotional learning) program. If we work as a team, we accomplish more and we feel better about ourselves and others during the process.

10:20 AM - Tool Training. As collaborators, we believe that kids are empowered when they know how to correctly and safely use tools. Each tinkerer learns how to use three tools during training: clamps, cordless drills, and chop saw (aka mitre saw). And then we practice. A lot. We learn the rhythms of each tool such as the “ready call” we do before turning on the chop saw, the way we align the driver bit with the star-shaped screw head before pulling the trigger, and the need to ask for a friend to help hold wood before we clamp or drill.

1:10 PM - Project Reveal. The moment we’ve all been waiting for! Beckie slowly unveiled clues… several small plastic dinosaurs… and then announced with fanfare: “Dinosaur Safari!” We will be building a safari experience but before we can start building, we brainstorm during our design session.

1:25 PM - Design Session. The sky is the limit when we sketch ideas for our “Dinosaur Safari” theme! Sure, we know we’ll have to build primarily out of wood and screws but there’s time to talk constraints and there’s time to use our imaginations and dream big. Bigger than ourselves. As we engage in a “gallery walk” to share our designs, we move through a process of identifying common features, figuring out dimensions (our dinosaur is going to be 1 “SB” tall or 1 “Avery” tall or “5 feet tall.” Why shouldn’t we use ourselves to measure? It makes it more tangible. At the end of the day, we make a “cut list” of pieces we need and then our groups break up into pairs and smaller sub-groups to measure and cut the wood we’ll need for our build.

2:50 PM - Closing Circle. We end our day at camp by gathering to reflect on what we did and how we worked towards our goals, and previewing the day ahead.

For even more photos from throughout our week together, visit our photo album.